Tears from Heaven: Dr. King Would Want Climate Justice

Authors: ada

By Rev. Lennox Yearwood
Crossposted from The Huffington Post
4/5/09
Forty-one years ago today, on a
balcony in Memphis, TN, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was taken from us.
His dream, however, did not die on the balcony.
One year ago, on the 40th anniversary of Dr. King's assassination, I
was in Memphis at a very special and important gathering, the Dream
Reborn Conference organized by Green for All. This gathering
jumpstarted a nationwide movement for an inclusive green economy. Over
the course of a year this movement grew so quickly and became so
powerful, that we got $500 million dollars for green jobs training in
President Obama's economic recovery plan.
Now, our movement for climate justice and economic opportunity has a
critical role this month. We must fight for federal clean energy
legislation that will create jobs, help end our dangerous dependence on
foreign oil, and combat global warming.
This week, Congressman Henry Waxman, Chair of the Energy and
Commerce Committee and Congressman Edward Markey, Chair of the Energy
and Environment Subcommittee, released a draft of the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (ACES). Here is a summary of the bill.
This legislation takes a step towards ending global warming, and by
working with our environmental movement allies we can align the cause
of ending urban poverty with the need to protect our environment. That
is, if we can connect the dots between what's good for our planet and
what's good for low-income urban communities.
You see, it is mostly poor people of color in the U.S. and around
the globe who are feeling the impact from climate change, through
increases in heat-related illnesses and deaths, rising energy costs,
and of course natural disasters, like Hurricane Katrina.
We can end poverty and save our climate at the same time. Our
demands in the month of April to our Representatives in Congress should
be to create Clean Energy Jobs, rebuild our economy, save consumers and
businesses money through industry efficiency, protect consumers from
energy price spikes (like $4 a gallon gas last summer), and cap global
warming pollution to protect our vulnerable communities and avert the
high price of inaction.
One piece of legislation, the American Clean Energy and Security
Act, can do all this for us, if we make it so. Nothing is guaranteed
for Urban America in this green conversion, if the streets stay silent
on this issue.
We have come so far over the course of a year, as a movement we
worked both to elect the people we want to best represent us, and at
the same time, we fought hard on the issues that matter. Opportunity is
before us, and we must seize it.
I gave a speech one year ago, as the keynote to the opening plenary of the Dream Reborn Conference. Davey D,
a renowned Hip Hop journalist, remixed it. I would give the same exact
speech today, April 4, 2009 as we still fight for the Dream. Listen to
the speech with an introduction from my good friend Van Jones:

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#GreenForAll, #YesWeCode, #cut50, and #LoveArmy, are initiativesof the Dream Corps, a social justice accelerator for transformativecampaigns, ideas, and innovations. We work to close prison doorsand open doors of opportunity. We fight hate with Love + Power.